CAREER DECIDEDNESS, MEANING IN LIFE, AND ANXIETY: A MEDIATION/MODERATION MODEL

This focus of the current study is the role of meaning in life with respect to career decision and anxiety. It was hypothesized that: (1) There is a negative correlation between career decidedness and anxiety; (2) Meaning in life mediates the relationship between career decidedness and state anxiety; and (3) The relationship between career decidedness and state anxiety will be moderated by the search for meaning in life. Participants consisted of undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university. Measures include: the Career Decision Scale (CDS; Osipow et al., 1976), the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ; Steger et al., 2006), and the State-Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety (STICSA; Ree et al., 2000). The results indicate that the presence of meaning in life mediates the relationships between career decidedness and anxiety. However, the results did not support the hypothesis that the search for meaning in life moderates the relationship between career decidedness and anxiety. Future research and practical implications are also discussed